2012 Belgian Grand Prix

Jenson Button threw himself back into title contention after winning an eventful Belgian Grand Prix. His second win of the season came from pole position as the McLaren driver was rarely challenged, leading the pack the entire journey.

The race was rated an average of 7.467 out of ten. That’s the lowest Belgian Grand Prix rating of the last five years, but that’s largely because previous Belgian Grands Prix have been rated very highly.

The result was somewhat overshadowed by a frightening opening lap collision caused by Romain Grosjean which eliminated championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and robbed Sauber of their best-ever qualifying performance.

Many rued the collision which took some of the intrigue out of the race:

Really enjoyable but I can?óÔé¼Ôäót help but feel it should have been better had the accident not taken out so many drivers and ruined races.Nefor

Could have been better if some of the best drivers hadn?óÔé¼Ôäót crashed out in the first corner. All in all: eight.Cyclops_PL

This race could have been really interesting but this sort of events happen when one or two crazy youngsters try to overtake the field in one corner.Smokinjoe

Others felt the pile-up could have been avoided:

Again I will say, if they had started the race on the other pit straight, none of this would have happened.Brownerboy

The damage done to Sauber’s race was particularly keenly felt after the team had shone in qualifying:

It?óÔé¼Ôäós a shame we lost Kobayashi and Perez after the first corner, they would have been very interesting to watch.Yobo01

I was really looking forward to racing challenges from the lesser names like Kobayashi and Perez.Timothy Katz

I would like to have seen what the two Sauber?óÔé¼Ôäós could have achieved.BradFerrari

However, the majority were content with the fighting for position right down the field:

Good race. There was close fighting throughout which I don?óÔé¼Ôäót think we?óÔé¼Ôäóve seen so much this year since Monaco.AndrewTanner

There?óÔé¼Ôäós more to a race than first place. Vettel?óÔé¼Ôäós overtakes and Schumacher?óÔé¼Ôäós defences were exceptional. We had a good number of battles across the entire grid.Pamphlet

Salcrich felt that Button deserved applause for his flawless weekend:

Give Button his due, he was untouchable in qualifying and held the same margin in the race. Where were the guys who were eliminated going to find the speed to challenge Button?Salcrich

It may not have been one of the greatest races Spa has ever witnessed, but as Antonio notes there have been many excellent races at the track in recent years:

Sure, not as great as other races here in the past. Most of them actually. But still a good way to get back into business after the summer break.Antonio Nartea

14 comments on Rate the Race Result: 2012 Belgian Grand Prix

Again I will say, if they had started the race on the other pit straight, none of this would have happened.

Surely the Hamilton part of the incident would have been no less likely to happen. It just would have meant that on a run into a fast first corner, the cars behind would struggle to take avoiding action. And Eau Rouge as a first corner would be terrifying.

I voted according to my own opinion, i didn’t vote 1 or 10 just to try to influence the score, if people had been more reasonable the result for SPA could have been better or worse, certainly more reliable.

I don’t think that the crash at the 1st corner was necessarily a bad thing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that crashing in F1 should somehow be encouraged and I also believe that there is still a lot of work to do to ensure that drivers never get hurt in the crashes. For instance, the rear wheels should have been covered already long ago.

But crashes just belong to the motorsports, they often look spectacular and they have their positive sides, too. For example, when the fastest cars get eliminated, others get a chance to fight for positions that would otherwise be unreachable for them. And I understand that one is not happy, if his favourite driver has to call it a day after the first hundred metres of the race but I don’t see how the fight between, let’s say, Hulkenberg and Raikkonen was less worthy than one betwen Hamilton and Alonso might have been.

I thought the Belgian GP was a great race, we really have high expectations this year!
So chuffed that the one GP I decided to go to has been the best of the year so far :) Especially when I was expecting the usual borefest